Content marketing can certainly help your business online when used creatively and purposefully, along with SEO and Social Media. Sure, content marketing has been around since the dark ages, but since the digital age, it …
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Wondering why perception is so important in marketing? This quote sums it up nicely: “Facts matter not at all. Perception is everything. It’s certainty.” – Stephen Colbert.
You see, it doesn’t matter how good your product/service is, the value it offers, or the quality you provide. If consumers don’t perceive your brand the way you want them to, your business will struggle with loyalty and getting new customers.
Today, I’m covering brand perception in detail. What is it, and why does it matter? How do you measure it? Keep reading to find out more.
In marketing, brand perception is how consumers see and feel about a company or product. It’s how customers interpret and react to messages, experiences, and interactions with a brand.
Obvious things like marketing, word-of-mouth, and customer service contribute to your brand perception, and less obvious areas like colors can also influence how customers perceive you. (I’ve written an article if you want to know the best colors for online conversions).
While both concepts are essential to businesses, they serve different purposes. As you know, brand perception helps you understand how customers see your company; in contrast, brand equity allows you to quantify the value of your business. It consists of multiple factors, like:
Essentially, brand equity is the difference between what a customer would pay for a generic product and what they would pay for the same product from a specific brand.
There are several ways to build equity in a brand. One is by offering high-quality products or services that customers can rely on. Another is positive customer experiences that leave people feeling good about the brand.
Creating an emotional connection with consumers can also help build equity, as people with a positive association with a brand are more likely to be loyal.
A brand isn’t merely a name or logo. It’s also the perception that consumers have of a company or product, and that idea can make or break a business.
Think about it – would you buy a product from a company you don’t trust? Or one whose values don’t align with your own?
Probably not.
That’s why brand perception is so important. It’s the difference between customers choosing your company over your competitors.
In addition, a strong brand perception:
If consumers perceive your business positively, it can put it on the map, and if you’re already established, a good impression can grow your brand exponentially.
Let’s use Apple as an example.
Although it’s had its ups and downs, customers’ brand perception of Apple is largely positive. Additionally, it has a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 72. The NPS measures customer experience and potential business growth by using a simple one-ten scale:
Why the love for Apple? Well, it:
All these factors give buyers confidence and, you’ve guessed it, give Apple a great brand perception.
On the other hand, what about Meta (formerly Facebook)? According to branding expert Rebecca Biestman, Facebook can’t repair its brand perception simply by changing its name.
Scandals like Cambridge Analytica significantly wounded the company’s reputation, and its user base is set to decline for the first time ever; although there are multiple factors behind Facebook’s falling user numbers, brand perception is among them.
Now that you see how consumers’ brand perception can influence your business’s fortunes, let’s discuss how you measure it.
Fortunately, measuring brand perception is not as complicated as you may think. Below are some of the easiest ways to understand how buyers and prospects view you.
Email lists, online review platforms, and social media make reaching out to your customers easier than ever. Want to know what your buyers think of your product or service? Or how to make them better? Send them a survey and ask them what you could do to improve.
If you’re a larger company with a decent budget, consider brand perception surveys or focus groups.
For more general answers on what your buyers value, you could ask them things like:
These questions can give you a better idea of what customers look for in a business and provide valuable and actionable feedback. For instance, if you believe you provide great customer service but your customers believe you could be more responsive, you can introduce measures to improve response times.
Then you might ask them questions like this:
Of course, the type of questions you ask depends on what you want to achieve. Here are some tips for creating a brand perception survey:
1. Decide what you want to measure. Do you want to know how customers feel about your brand overall? Or are you looking for feedback on specific products or services? Determine what you want to learn from the survey to create suitable questions.
2. Keep the questions focused. Too many questions can overwhelm respondents and make it difficult to get useful data. Stick to around 10-15 questions that are relevant to your goals for the survey.
3. Make sure the questions are clear and easy to understand. Use simple language and avoid jargon.
4. Ask open-ended questions to get detailed answers rather than ‘yes’ or ‘no’ responses.
Yes, you can spend your time looking through your Twitter feeds and relevant tags, but you may find automating the task with social listening tools more efficient.
Social listening tools can track and measure brand perception across social media channels. By analyzing online conversations, businesses can get insights into how customers perceive your brand, what customers are saying, and what areas need improvement.
Many different social listening tools are available, each with unique features and benefits. Some of the most popular include Hootsuite Insights, Brandwatch, and Talkwalker.
A brand audit is a detailed analysis of how customers and other stakeholders perceive a company’s brand, allowing businesses to identify areas where the brand is strong and where it needs improvement.
An audit usually involves:
You can then use this information to create a detailed report to help you understand your brand’s strengths and weaknesses.
Brand audits can be important for businesses looking to improve their brand perception. By understanding how customers and others perceive the company, businesses can make changes to improve their image.
In addition, brand audits help you understand:
Finally, check online review sites to see what your buyers are saying about their experience and address any shortcomings you discover.
There are some best practices every business can introduce to enhance its brand reputation. Here are some of them.
First, start with the basics. Ensure you deliver high-quality products and services and always exceed/manage customer expectations.
Next, use effective marketing to improve brand perception by communicating the right message/image about your company to the right audience. You can do this by using customer avatars or buyer personas to understand your ideal customers and the type of content that most likely resonates with them.
Then, focus on the customer journey. Complete customer journey mapping to see the purchasing process from your customer’s perspective. Doing this helps ensure each interaction along the customer journey leaves a positive impression.
I’ve already discussed social listening, but responding to what your consumers say is every bit as vital. It doesn’t matter if a buyer’s experience is positive or negative; they’re only too happy to share their views on social media. While you can’t do much about this, you can at least ensure you’re fast to respond and offer your customer a positive outcome.
Giving swift responses and addressing issues is more likely to improve your brand perception and get you noticed by potential buyers.
Does your product do what it says on the label? Making bold claims in your advertising that you can’t deliver is guaranteed to underwhelm and frustrate your customers.
However, don’t just focus on your product descriptions, features, and benefits. Check your images, too. For instance, does your imaging suggest your product comes with accessories when it doesn’t?
You’ll never perceive your product or service the same way as your customers. Your buyers and prospects can often give you insights and suggestions you’ve never even dreamed of.
Whether it comes from social media, surveys, reviews, or niche-related forums, understanding your customer’s pain points helps you develop and refine products/services to meet their needs.
Training your staff ensures they feel empowered to answer consumer/leads questions accurately. When your staff are knowledgeable, it inspires confidence among buyers and enhances your brand perception.
Changing times and consumer demand often mean companies must reposition themselves if they want to influence customers’ views.
Let’s look at two examples of brand perception.
At first glance, Zoom might look like an overnight success, but that’s not the case. Eric Yuan founded Zoom in 2011. It had a public launch in 2013, with a mission of ‘making video communications frictionless and secure’.
However, it wasn’t until 2020 that it became more mainstream. As its popularity soared, the brand perception changed. ‘Zoom fatigue’ became a thing. Some employees spending lengthy periods on the app complained of exhaustion from the extra cognitive demands of video conferencing, irritability, and muscle tension.
Then, later, Zoom’s growth started to flatline.
Zoom’s answer to this problem? It repositioned itself to change users’ brand perception.
It launched a ‘How the World Connects’ campaign and expanded away from video with the Zoom phone. Online, the company stressed its highly successful track record, highlighting how half a million businesses use Zoom, including:
That’s before you get to the ton of top finance, healthcare, and educational facilities that use Zoom and how the app helps them. For example, Zoom provides secure communications for hybrid working and allows better collaboration between teams. It sounds like a real success story, doesn’t it? And perhaps one you want to be part of.
Here’s a great example of how marketing can change brand perception.
Think of Chipotle, and the first thing that comes to mind is fast food. However, the company wanted to win new customers for its ‘Lifestyle Bowls Range’ for those following vegetarian, vegan, and keto diets.
To achieve this, Chipotle needed to change its brand perception and reposition itself as a healthier alternative. By working with a marketing agency, Chipotle highlighted the use of its natural, fresh ingredients in its made-to-order takeaway meals.
The agency:
The results were impressive by anyone’s standards, leading to 10.7 million impressions and potentially 2.5 million new customers. In addition, click-through rates (CTRs) exceed standard benchmarks, averaging 1.24 percent.
This case study highlights the importance of:
If you want to change your brand perception or move into new market sectors, taking these measures can supercharge the impact of your advertising campaigns.
Apple has an excellent brand perception, built on having high-quality products that are easy to use. Its positive brand perception has helped Apple become one of the most successful companies in the world.
Brand perception starts with knowing your audience and understanding what they want and need. From there, you can create messaging and visuals that resonate with them.
You can measure brand perception through audits, surveys, social listening, and reading reviews.
Numerous factors influence brand perception, like your marketing, word of mouth, customer service, and color scheme.
Brand perception is essential to your business. The better consumers perceive your products/service, the more loyal your customers are likely to be, and you can charge a premium for your products.
Perception is important in marketing because it helps you understand how customers see your brand. This understanding is valuable when deciding how to position your brand and what messages to communicate to your target audience.
Brand equity is the value of a brand based on customer perceptions and associations. Brand perception is how customers perceive a brand in the present moment.
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Let’s return to my original point: perception is everything. It doesn’t matter if the image customers have of your business is accurate or not; it only matters what their perceptions are.
The truth is that companies sometimes perceive themselves differently than their customers or prospects, which can make it difficult to attract new buyers.
Poor brand perception can hamper growth, limit customer loyalty, and ultimately means you don’t reach your core audience.
However, businesses can make better decisions about their marketing efforts by understanding brand perception and how to measure it. Additionally, companies can identify trends and adjust accordingly by tracking brand perception over time.
What brand perception are you trying to craft for your business?
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When a customer interacts with your brand on your website, on social media channels, or in person, they should have a cohesive experience.
From brand voice to visual identity, everything should be aligned with your company’s mission, values, and goals.
This approach is called integrated marketing communications (IMC).
As more and more customers use three or more channels to research a brand, integrated marketing communications are becoming more and more important.
WSo what are integrated marketing communications, and why do they work so well? In this blog post, we’ll answer those questions and give you some tips on how to create your own integrated marketing communications plan.
The goal of integrated marketing communications is to create a consistent message and brand identity that customers will recognize across all channels.
This requires a coordinated effort that includes all aspects of marketing, from advertising and public relations to sales and customer service.
For example, if a customer sees an ad for your product on TV, hears about it on the radio, and then visits your website, they should have the same experience.
Your message should be consistent across all channels, and each channel should work together to support the others.
Why is this important?
Well, in a world where 77 percent of B2B buyers spend time researching purchases online and purchase frequency is 250 percent higher on omnichannel vs. single-channel shopping, you need to make sure your message is getting through, loud and clear.
An integrated marketing communications plan will help you do just that by bringing all of your marketing efforts together into one cohesive strategy.
Integrated marketing communications campaigns work because they provide a consistent message across all channels that are reinforced with each interaction.
This type of marketing allows you to control the conversation about your brand and ensure that your target audience is seeing the same message no matter where they encounter your brand—–whether it’s through paid advertising, social media, or even in person.
Plus, integrated marketing communications campaigns are often more cost-effective than single-channel campaigns because you can leverage existing content and assets across multiple channels.
Key benefits of an integrated marketing communications plan:
If that’s not enough, research from the Harvard Business Review found that customers who use omnichannel shopping spend 10 percent % more online and four4 percent % more in-store than single-channel customers.
Looking for your next great integrated marketing communications campaign? Check out these examples for inspiration.
The “Whassup?” campaign by Budweiser first aired during Monday Night Football in 1999. The campaign featured characters answering the phone saying, “Whassup?” in a comical, slurred way.
While the internet was still in its infancy, Budweiser became a pioneer by directing viewers to its website.
On the website, visitors could learn how to say “Whassup” in over 30 different languages! With this new marketing campaign, only one phrase increased visitors to Budweiser’s website and sealed the integrated marketing communications campaign’s efficacy.
The campaign was a success and won the Cannes Grand Prix award as well as the Grand Clio award. The catchphrase was also featured in pop-culture hits such as Scary Movie (2000), Friends (2003), The Simpsons (2002, 2005), and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2008).
For the 2020 Super BowlSuperbowl, Budweiser brought this campaign back in a pandemic-themed re-make titled, “Whassup again?”
Another integrated marketing communications campaign example success story comes from Domino’s Pizza.
ToIn order to increase digital orders, Domino’s created AnyWare, which allows customers to order pizza through various platforms such as a tweet, text, Ford Sync, Smart TVs, and smartwatches.
Each new way to order was introduced with its own press release and driven to the DominosAnyWare.com website.
In 2015, Dominos also launched a national TV ad campaign featuring celebrities arguing that their way of ordering was the best.
To date, the AnyWare campaign has generated 2 billion earned media impressions including spots on The Ellen Show, Jimmy Fallon, and The Today Show. The TV campaigns generated 10.5 percent year-over-year growth for the brand.
To promote the theatertheatre release of 20th Century Fox and Ridley Scott’s, “The Martian” in 2015, a prologue campaign was created to increase awareness and excitement.
The goal of the “The Martian” prologue campaign was to build box office hype around the new film.
An integrated marketing communications strategy was built to be consumed on a variety of channels including, but not limited to: social media, video, celebrity endorsements, and traditional PR and marketing efforts.
The campaigns included a mock episode of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s StarTalk from the year 2035, an Under Armour campaign showing “The Martian”‘s main character, Mark Watney, as a superathlete of the future, and mock-declassified NASA footage showing each character going through psychological testing before heading out into space.
The Martian opened number one at the box offices and had the second-highest fall opening of all time. It was also the number one movie in the U.S. for four4 weeks.
If you want to create an integrated marketing communications plan that highlights the best of your brand, here are a few key steps you need to take.
Before you start developing your communications plan, you must takeit’s important that you take the time to get to know your audience.
Consider demographic factors, such as education level, gender, income, age, race, and geographic location. Then, think about behavioral and psychological traits, including things like interests, hobbies, and values.
Take demographic factors like education level, income, age, race, gender, and geographic location into consideration. Don’t forget about psychological and behavioral traits like values, hobbies, and interests.
Creating a customer profile that is specifically tailored to your ideal customer will help you make better decisions about your marketing campaign.
In some cases, you may have more than one customer profile for a given campaign. Sometimes, you may have multiple customer profiles for one campaign. In that case, it’s important to segment your audience so that you can tailor your message to each group.
For example, if you’re marketing a new line of environmentally-friendly cleaning products, you might have one customer profile that is interested in saving money and another that is interested in saving the planet.
Tailoring your message to each group will help you create an integrated marketing communications plan that highlights the best of your brand.
Let’s face it, you might not be in a position to hire Neil deGrasse Tyson, NASA, and Under Armour in your first integrated marketing communications campaign.
But tThat doesn’t mean you can’t create a strong, compelling message.
The key is to set a realistic budget and then allocate your resources accordingly.
If you have a limited budget, focus on creating high-quality content that can be distributed across multiple channels.
If you have a larger budget, look for high-profile partnerships, influencer marketing, and other paid media opportunities.
In either case, make sure you have a clear plan for how you will spend your money and what your limits are.
One of the most important parts of creating an integrated marketing communications plan is understanding what makes your brand unique.
Answering these questions will help you develop a strong unique selling proposition (USP), which will be a key component of your communications strategy.
Once you have your USP, make sure it is front and center in all of your marketing materials.
It should be the through-line that ties together your various communications channels and provides a consistent message to your target audience.
For example, if you are a luxury car brand like Audi, your USP might be “Luxurious and comfortable cars delivering excellent engine performance.”
Make sure this message is clear in your advertising, social media posts, website content, and any other marketing collateral.
If you’re selling running shoes like Nike, your USP might be “The best shoes for athletes and fitness.”
Again, this should be a consistent message across all of your communications channels.
Your USP will be the foundation of your integrated marketing communications strategy, so take the time to develop it thoughtfully.
Once you know who you’re speaking to and what you want to say, you need to decide which channels you’ll use to reach your target audience.
This will be different for every business, but some common options include:
Once you decide on overarching channels, you’ll also need to determine which specific tactics you’ll use on each platform.
For example, if you’re using Facebook to reach your target audience, will you primarily rely on organic posts or paid ads? If you’re using email marketing, what sort of content will you include in your newsletters?
Asking yourself these types of questions will help you create a more comprehensive and effective IMC strategy.
While your brand voice needs to be consistent across all channels, the way you actually communicate with your audience will vary depending on the platform you’re using.
For example, the messaging you use in a Facebook ad will be different from than the messaging you use in an email newsletter.
Your tone might also change depending on whether you’re trying to build awareness, generate leads or drive sales.
Keep this in mind as you create your content calendar and start to populate it with messaging that’s in line with your brand voice and the goals of each individual piece.
Here are two examples from sneaker company No Bull, which uses different messaging styles on Facebook ads versus Twitter posts.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>About to take on the week like…<br>Congrats on a great finish in Dubai, Tola!<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/IAMNOBULL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#IAMNOBULL</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/JustTheHorns?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#JustTheHorns</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/BehindTheHorns?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#BehindTheHorns</a> <a href=”https://t.co/RqlABILona”>pic.twitter.com/RqlABILona</a></p>— NOBULL (@justthehorns) <a href=”https://twitter.com/justthehorns/status/1206646654989783047?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>December 16, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>
You’re almost ready to start putting your IMC plan into action, but first, you need to set some targets and goals. Consider the following:
Attaching numbers to your objectives is a good way to measure progress. For example, if one of your goals is to increase brand awareness, you could measure this by tracking the number of mentions your brand receives online.
Or, if you’re looking to improve customer satisfaction, you could survey your customers after they’ve made a purchase.
Other goals can include:
Once you have some goals and targets in mind, it’s time to start putting your integrated marketing communications plan into action!
Once your integrated marketing communications campaign is up and running, it’s important to track progress and optimize along the way.
Analytics are key in understanding what’s working and what’s not.
Be sure to keep an eye on your campaign goals and KPIs, and adjust as necessary. If you’re not seeing the results you want, don’t be afraid to change things up.
For example, let’s imagine you’re running an email campaign as part of your integrated marketing communications plan.
You might want to track metrics such as:
If your open or click-through rates are low, you might want to consider changing up your subject lines or email content.
Or, if you’re seeing higher than average unsubscribe rates, that could be an indication that your content is not relevant to your audience.
It’s important to constantly test and measure the performance of your campaigns so that you can make necessary adjustments to ensure success. By doing so, you’ll be able to create an integrated marketing communications plan that highlights the best of your brand.
Integrated marketing communication is an approach to marketing that uses all aspects of a company’s communication channels to deliver a consistent message.
The benefit of an integrated marketing communications plan is to ensure that all of a company’s marketing efforts are working together in harmony to deliver a consistent message.
There are five main ways to market your product or service. They are advertising, direct marketing, internet marketing, sales promotion, and public relations. All of these methods can be used together to create a harmonious marketing plan.
Yes, integrated marketing communication plans can help drive ROI by ensuring that all marketing efforts are working together to deliver a consistent message. This will result in increased brand awareness and customer loyalty, which will lead to increased sales and profits.
An integrated marketing communications plan is the key to success for any company.
By creating a plan that outlines the main ways to market your company and product, you can ensure that all of your marketing efforts are working together to deliver a consistent message.
This can result in increased brand awareness and customer loyalty, which can lead to increased sales and profits.
The end result? A more successful company that is better able to compete in today’s marketplace.
How have you found success with integrated marketing communications?
The McDonald’s golden arches in the form of the letter “M,” the first letter of the fast-food giant’s name. Its highly recognizable bright yellow and red color scheme is internationally recognized by its repeat customers. … The post How to Capture Brand Voice in Content Writing appeared first on Paper.li blog.
The McDonald’s golden arches in the form of the letter “M,” the first letter of the fast-food giant’s name. Its highly recognizable bright yellow and red color scheme is internationally recognized by its repeat customers. …
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It goes without saying that the content you create and share is the essence of building your personal brand. Producing top-quality content, in high volumes and in new formats, will have you standing out from …
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Podcasting isn’t necessarily a stranger in today’s digital world. However, it’s only recently that podcasting gained popularity, especially when the pandemic hit. As a result, people had to remain at home and look for different …
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TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms ever. The numbers are staggering:
It’s not just a place for dance challenges or pranks, either. Brands can use TikTok to build their reputation, engage audiences, and drive conversions. However, unlike Facebook and Instagram, it’s not immediately obvious how brands can best use TikTok to their advantage.
That’s why TikTok created TikTok For Business. This marketing tool offers everything brands need to create awesome TikTok ads that drive real business results.
This article explains what TikTok For Business is and how it works, who should use TikTok For Business, and how you can get the most from this tool. By the end of the article, you’ll have a clear idea of how you can succeed with this phenomenal social network.
TikTok For Business is highly recommended. It won B2B Brand of the Year at The Drum Awards for B2B in 2021, thanks to its rebranding efforts and glowing recommendations from brands of all sizes.
Before we dive into actionable strategies, let’s take a moment to cover what TikTok For Business is. TikTok For Business, formerly called TikTok Ads, is an all-in-one marketing tool built to help businesses release their creative side and create awesome campaigns that can go viral.
The tool makes it easy for brands to start advertising on TikTok. It contains in-depth guides on the solutions it offers, including:
It also offers plenty of inspirational success stories (something we’ll cover in more detail below) and loads of blog posts and how-to videos.
OK, TikTok For Business sounds great. However, is it right for everyone?
I think almost every business has a lot to gain from TikTok. For one, it is the leading app for consumer spending. In 2021, users spent a whopping $2.3 billion in the app, up from $1.3 billion in 2020. It also offers the following three major benefits to brands.
Consumers love videos. In 2022, we watched an average of 2.5 hours of online video content per day, up from 1.5 hours per day in 2018. The same study also shows we’re twice as likely to share video content with friends than any other online content.
There are few better places to watch videos than on TikTok.
As the leading video-based social network, TikTok gives brands access to millions of potential views. As I mentioned in the introduction, TikTok has a phenomenal number of users in over 140 countries.
What’s even more important is that those users are highly engaged. Data released by TikTok shows the average user opens the app 19 times a day and actively uses the app for 89 minutes per day—basically an hour and a half.
Even better, almost anyone can create a viral TikTok video. The nature of the platform’s algorithm means even creators with tiny audiences can become viral hits. Just ask Nathan Apodaca, whose video become so popular it reached Fleetwood Mac, whose song he sings in the soothing video he records while skateboarding to work.
No one wants to be known as the company that runs cheesy adverts on social media. Consumers don’t want crap ads, either. Consumers want an emotional connection to brands now more than ever, and 90 percent say authenticity is important when deciding which brands they support.
Thanks to the solutions offered by TikTok For Business, it’s easier for brands to come across as authentic and create the same level of content pushed out by veteran content creators.
Of course, it’s easy to go too far and jump on all of the latest TikTok trends. While it’s important to be creative and authentic, take care to stay true to your brand’s personality. If the trend doesn’t mirror your brand image, you don’t need to jump on the bandwagon.
The power of influencer marketing is well understood. Three in four marketers use influencers as a marketing tool, and 90 percent believe it to be effective.
TikTok takes influencer marketing to a new level. Because it’s possible for someone with very few influencers to go viral on TikTok, brands have access to a potentially unlimited number of influencers.
TikTok also makes it easy to connect with influencers thanks to its Creator Marketplace. We’ll talk about this analytics tool below, but it’s a great way to find partners with the engagement, reach, and demographics you care about.
It doesn’t matter who you are or what kind of business you run; TikTok has something to offer everyone from large enterprises to small businesses and agencies.
Big brands with even bigger marketing budgets have quickly made TikTok their home. Companies like Coca-Cola, Google, and Sony have already established effective partnerships with popular TikTokers to promote brand awareness and drive conversions.
The New York Times reports that at least 18 public retail brands have referred to marketing efforts on TikTok on calls with analysts and investors between August and December.
TikTok goes to great lengths to promote itself as the social media platform of choice for small businesses. In 2021, the company unveiled its Small Wins initiative, which showed the value it can bring to smaller businesses around the globe. This includes a bakery that turned 3,000 followers into 2 million and a candlemaker who went viral.
Agencies are also a focus of TikTok’s marketing efforts. The company has created TikTok Marketing Partners, a community of companies that help marketers grow their businesses on TikTok. These partners provide a range of services, from creative design to campaign management. Agencies who have a penchant for TikTok can even sign up to become Marketing Partners themselves.
As you can see, virtually any company can use TikTok to their advantage. However, you’ll want to ensure your audience is present on the platform. Just because you find success on Instagram or Facebook doesn’t mean TikTok is a good fit.
TikTok has already become the app of choice for Gen Z consumers, surpassing Instagram in popularity. They aren’t the only people using the app, however. One in five U.S. adults uses the platform, including 22 percent of consumers aged 30-49.
Even if you don’t think TikTok is suitable for your brand, it’s still worth creating an account to reserve your business username. Maybe you’ll change your mind by the end of the article.
Finally, it’s time to start using TikTok to promote your business. Here are six ways you can use TikTok For Business today.
TikTok offers two types of Pro accounts: Business Accounts and Creator Accounts. We’re going to focus on the former here.
TikTok Business Accounts are designed especially for brands and companies. They come packed with awesome features to help engage your audience, including in-depth metrics, campaign management advice, TikTok’s Web Business Suite, and a commercial music library of over 500,000 royalty-free sounds.
Creating a Business Account is easy.
If you already have a TikTok account, you can convert your current account into a Business Account. Click on the menu dots in the top right-hand corner of the Me page, then click on Manage My Account and select Business Account under the Switch to Pro Account option.
If you don’t have a TikTok account yet, you can sign up for a Business Account here.
It’s similar to setting up an account on any social media platform. You’ll need to enter an email and create a password.
Next, you need to create your business account.
Start by finding a username that isn’t already taken. Ideally, it will just be your brand name, but you may need to add a prefix or suffix to make it unique. Try one of these handle ideas if your brand name is taken.
With your Business Account created, you can start thinking about what you want to achieve with your account, who you want to target, how you’ll use your account, and the kind of videos you’ll create.
TikTok’s ads are fantastic. According to Hootsuite, they reach 17.9 percent of all internet users above the age of 18—and you have the potential to reach 884.9 million people.
Better still, TikTok users actually enjoy seeing ads. Almost three-quarters (72 percent) of users surveyed by Kantar perceived ads as inspiring. They also find them to be 21 percent more trendsetting than ads on other platforms and are more enjoyable and optimistic, too.
One of the best things about running ads on TikTok is that they blend in seamlessly with organic content on the platform. There are several forms of TikTok ads, including:
TikTok makes it easy to get started with their ads manager.
First, select your goal. That could be to connect with your audience, generate web traffic, or generate leads.
Next, you choose your audience. You can let TikTok choose your audience or set the audience size yourself.
Next, set your daily budget and the dates you want your campaign to run.
While much of TikTok advertising is dominated by big brands, you don’t have to blow your annual marketing budget to see success. TikTok has a minimum campaign budget of $500 when using the ad manager and a minimum ad group budget of $50.
Finally, design and launch your ad. Now watch the impressions, engagement, and revenue roll in.
Influencers are crucial on TikTok. Interest in creating influencer advertising campaigns is on the rise too, with a 325 percent increase in 2021. 68 percent of marketers now say they want to leverage the platform.
In response, TikTok released the Creator Marketplace (TCM) in 2019 to make it easier for brands and content creators to collaborate.
Brands use the marketplace to search for registered content creators, manage their campaigns, pay creators and generate reports and insights.
The Creator Marketplace means brands can manage multiple influencer campaigns in one place and keep track of everything through a single dashboard.
Better still, the Creator Marketplace massively increases transparency. Accurate reporting is notoriously difficult when working with influencers, but it’s baked into the Creator Marketplace.
As a result, brands can see at a glance which influencers help them meet their goals and which aren’t. This not only lets brands drop the influencers that aren’t working out, but also gives influencers the information they need to create awesome campaigns.
Finding the right influencers is another notoriously tricky part of working with influencers. Again, the Creator Marketplace comes to the rescue by letting you filter influencers by several criteria, including:
Once you’ve found the perfect influencer, you can use TCM to send them messages, manage your joint campaign, and pay them.
Get started by signing up for the Creator Marketplace.
The Creator Marketplace isn’t the only way to find and work with content creators on TikTok. TikTok also launched the Creative Exchange, designed to help brands and content creators form successful partnerships.
Finding influencers is one of the biggest challenges for brands, making this a fantastic addition to the TikTok Business suite. The 2021 Influencer Benchmark Report survey found that 22 percent of participants find the task difficult, and 56 percent rated it as having medium difficulty.
The Creative Exchange flips the script on influencer marketing. Rather than searching for the right influencer, brands create a campaign plan and let content creators respond to it with their suggestions.
Once you sign up for the Creative Exchange, TikTok walks you through the process of creating your project and provides several campaign ideas. These include a “Story” and “Product Intro,” among others.
Next, you’ll fill in a questionnaire related to your brand and product so content creators can get a better idea of who they’re working with.
Creators registered with the Exchange get notified every time opportunities match their interests. If they’re interested, they can apply to relevant projects by submitting their ideas or entering into a conversation with the brand.
The TikTok Creator Exchange is a faster and more efficient way of working with influencers on TikTok. However, it’s important to have a clear idea about the kind of campaign you want to create. The more information you can provide influencers, the better responses you’ll get.
Every minute, people watch a staggering 167 million TikTok videos. That’s a huge number, and it shows just how hard you have to work to stand out from the crowd.
Most brands won’t be able to do this on their own.
Luckily, TikTok has a partnership program that connects brands with vetted TikTok experts. TikTok Marketing Partners have a wide range of skill sets and specialties, meaning they can help your business succeed at every stage of the campaign creation process. This includes:
Helping you create killer ads is just one of the benefits of working with a TikTok Marketing Partner. There are plenty more, including getting access to new features first, benefiting from expert advice, and knowing what’s coming next.
When you work with a TikTok Marketing Partner, you’re eligible for early access to the platform’s alpha and beta releases. Since TikTok Partners have a strong understanding of the platform, they’ll be able to make these new features work for your brand almost immediately.
Because they’ve achieved success on the platform many times over, they know the exact strategies you need to implement to meet your goals. TikTok also vets every partner to make sure they can do everything they promise.
Finally, a TikTok Marketing Partner has a deep knowledge of the platform’s product roadmap. That means they can notify you immediately of future developments in the app so your brand can take advantage faster.
Social commerce is a huge, growing market. There were roughly 79 million social buyers in the U.S. in 2020. By 2025, it’s estimated that figure will grow by 37 percent to 108 social consumers million.
More and more businesses are jumping on the social commerce bandwagon. A 2021 survey found eight in ten businesses plan to sell on social media platforms within the next three years.
If you’re looking to get to grips with social commerce, TikTok should be your starting point. According to the company’s own research, 67 percent of consumers say they’re inspired to shop due to TikTok, even if they weren’t planning to. You only have to look at the TikTok feta effect for proof.
With TikTok’s new shopping program, getting started is easier than ever. The social media platform has recently partnered with Shopify to allow businesses and creators to promote and sell products directly on the platform.
There are three core ways merchants can promote products on TikTok:
Creating a seller account is easy:
Many major brands are already selling on TikTok, like Kylie Cosmetics and Manly Brands. Even smaller brands have seen success selling on the platform.
U.K. perfumer retailer PerfumeBoss created their first live shoppable event just two days after signing up. It now hosts five live events every week and has seen a 438 percent increase in net revenue and a 369 percent increase in order volume.
If you’re looking for inspiration before you dip your toe into TikTok For Business, you’re in luck. The company has plenty of case studies showcasing just how much brands can achieve on the platform. Here are three of the most impressive.
Are you looking to use TikTok to drive online sales for your business? Then you need to learn how SLATE & TELL leveraged TikTok For their spring promotions. The personalized jewelry company aimed to see a 2x return on ad spend over six months by using TikTok For Business’ Smart Video Creative Tool.
They launched a series of in-feed ads that looked like a natural part of consumers’ For You feeds. By the end of the campaign, SLATE & TELL had reached four million people on TikTok, generated 1000 add-to-carts, and hit their goal of a 2x return on ad spend.
How can you replicate SLATE & TELL’s results?
Increasing brand awareness is a massive benefit of TikTok For Business, and one Momentary Ink took full advantage of. The company, which specializes in custom temporary tattoos, worked with TikTok’s partners to use in-feed ads featuring influencers trying out the product to demonstrate how good they looked.
Taking things further, the brand grew the campaign using TikTok’s auction feature and used the Conversion Objective feature within TikTok’s Ads Manager to track the campaign’s effectiveness. They followed up every purchase with a survey asking customers how they discovered the brand—a survey that further proved the power of TikTok for product discovery.
By the end of the campaign, they had reached 14 million video views, with 60 percent of buyers saying they discovered the brand on TikTok.
How can you replicate Momentary Ink’s results?
When your brand’s values match those of TikTok users, the results can be incredible. That was the case for Princess Polly, a Gen Z-focused fashion retailer that prides itself on ethical and sustainable fashion and has a no-photoshop policy.
That’s the perfect brand for TikTok’s youthful audience that cares about creating genuine connections between bands.
The brand ran a unique discount code and promoted it using auction ads focusing on driving traffic. By the end of the campaign, the brand’s ads had garnered 9 million impressions and had delivered a 15x return on ad spend.
How can you replicate Princess Polly’s results?
It’s free to sign up to TikTok For Business, but you’ll need to pay to work with content creators or run ads on the platform.
TikTok can do wonders for small businesses. There are several small business success stories on TikTok’s site, and they even ran a Small Wins campaign to highlight the impact they can have on small businesses.
If you’re only using TikTok for yourself, stick to a personal account. If you are using TikTok to make money, either as a business or an influencer, it makes sense to switch to a TikTok For Business account for additional insights and data.
TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform and the most downloaded app of 2020. The nature of the site means it’s possible for brands to develop genuine and authentic connections with their audience that result in better business results.
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TikTok isn’t just an app for Gen Z to kill time on; it’s a serious tool for businesses to increase brand awareness, build relationships and drive purchases. TikTok For Business makes it easy for companies of any size to get started advertising on the platform, whether that’s by partnering with creators or creating a TikTok shop.
Now it’s time for you to take the next steps. Get started by learning how to edit your own TikTok videos, or save yourself all the hard work by having users create videos for your brand.
So, how will you use TikTok For Business?
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